Geology and Geography News

Registration for the study abroad program in Scotland, “Walking in the footsteps of Hutton,” is now open?
The course will start in Edinburgh, Scotland. We will be staying near the center of old town and will be within walking distance to many of the classic local attractions. Edinburgh is a modern city that still has all of its old world charm. You will be captivated by its unique culture, vibrant night life, and the sounds of distant bagpipes playing old Scottish tunes. With its free museums and affordable public transportation, you will be spoiled for choice of activities in your free time. After three days of indulging on the geology and culture of Edinburgh, we will leave the rolling volcanic hills and ancient volcanic remains for the rocky exposed shores on the northwest Highlands. We will start our exploration of the Scottish Highlands on the Isle of Skye, thought by many to be the most beautiful of the Inner Hebrides. We will enjoy the long summer days of northern Scotland by exploring many locations as rich in folklore as they are in geology. Upon leaving the Isle of Skye we will travel north to the vacation town of Ullapool. This small vacation spot is very pedestrian friendly, and you will be able to enjoy a late dinner of fish and chips out by the loch. We will spend several days in Ullapool before moving even more northward to the shores of Clachtoll Beach. You will see the true rugged nature of the Scottish Highlands and see how its rural and remote culture differs from that of Edinburgh. Toward the end of our highland journey, we will have the opportunity to venture out north of Kinlockbervie to visit a mid 1800’s bothy. The hike to the bothy alone is worth the effort due to its natural moors and beaches, but this will provide insight to the peat cutting culture and simple living of the northern Scots of the past. After our northern Scottish adventure is complete, we will return to Edinburgh to enjoy two more nights of this historic city before we depart for home.
There will be three course offerings with this program: GEOL4930-GeoVenture, GEOL4300-Geodynamics, and GEOL4930-Directed Study. They are designed to target the non-geology/non-science majors, upper level geology majors, and intro geology majors. For more details about the courses and the overall trip costs, please view to above flyer or visit www.auburn.edu/~jfh0005/Scotland. If you have any questions please contact John Hawkins at jfh0005@auburn.edu.

AUBURN UNIVERSITY — The Auburn University Board of Trustees voted today to change the name of the Department of Geology and Geography to the “Department of Geosciences.” The change is due to the ever-widening areas of expertise of the department’s faculty and the resulting increase in both interdepartmental and interdisciplinary instruction and research.
“Geology and Geography are diverse fields, and the expertise of our faculty spans a broad range of both the natural and social sciences, bridging them perhaps as well as any other unit at Auburn University, which makes us well suited for interdisciplinary research and instruction,” said Mark Steltenpohl, chairman of the Department of Geosciences. “Faculty expertise and research activities contribute to a variety of Auburn’s strategic research areas, particularly in health, the environment, and energy, and we collaborate with faculty in many units across campus, including those in the colleges of Sciences and Mathematics, Agriculture, Engineering, Human Sciences, Liberal Arts and Education, and the schools of Nursing and Forestry and Wildlife.”

Registration for a study abroad program in the Republic of Panama, "Climate Change and Environmental Management," is now open. The registration deadline is March 30. Participants will gain basic knowledge and skills in the science of climate change, analyze trends in climatic variability and human vulnerability in Panama, explore direct and indirect effects of a changing climate on water resources management and learn to use technologies such as GIS and remote sensing. The course is co-sponsored by the College of Sciences and Mathematics' Department of Geology and Geography and the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean. To read the syllabus or register, go to this website. For more information, contact Chandana Mitra at czm0033@auburn.edu.

Professors James Saunders, Ming-Kuo Lee, and Ashraf Uddin, all of the Department of Geology and Geography, recently received a $345,000 three-year grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled, “Metal(loid) Sequestration by Natural Bacterial Sulfate Reduction and Field-Scale Biostimulation.” The researchers will evaluate if indigenous sulfate-reducing bacteria can be stimulated to make nanoparticle biominerals of iron sulfides that have the capacity to remove arsenic from contaminated groundwater. Two sites will be evaluated: an industrial site in Florida that is routinely doused with arsenic-rich pesticides; and an alluvial aquifer in Macon County, Ala., where arsenic contaminates groundwater by a natural biogeochemical process. The project was funded jointly by the Environmental Engineering and Low-Temperature Geochemistry and Geobiology programs at NSF.

Collins is running a "green fields" exploration project for African Barrick Gold, in western Kenya, and this is a picture of him showing some visible gold in drill core to the Kenyan Minister of Mines.

Congratulations to Ziaul Haque, for winning the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Weimer Family grant! Ziaul is a geology graduate student studying the petrofacies evolution of coarse clastics from the Cahaba Basin, Alabama, under the direction of Dr. Ashraf Uddin. He is the only graduate student to receive an AAPG award this year from the State of Alabama, and he also received a grant recently for the same project from the Geological Society of America (GSA).

Over the past 20 years, Willis Hames, a professor in Auburn University’s Department of Geology and Geography, has seen his fair share of student athletes in his classroom. He teaches Physical Geology, a large, auditorium-style science class which fills up quickly because it’s open to students from diverse academic curriculums. Last semester, one of his students was Auburn University football star and instant legend, Chris Davis. It was Hames’ class that erupted in a spontaneous standing ovation in honor of Davis on Dec. 2, the Monday following the Iron Bowl; a game which ended with Davis returning Alabama’s missed field goal for a touchdown, bringing Auburn the victory.
Hames recalls the standing ovation and notes there was a feeling of the extraordinary in the air, even before Davis walked into the classroom.